Would you please guide me or share your experience with Health Insurance benefits. I would like to start providing them and have following queries:

1. How much premium are you paying for a family insurance plan in your group? What can I expect to pay in NJ?2. What are some of the ways to save on this expense?3. How much do you ask your employee to contribute per pay check or % of the premium?4. Are there any federal or state plans that can allow Small Business Owners to tap into and save money?

If you are looking at group plans then the rates will be determined on the average age of the group and the type of plan selected. United and Blue Cross are probably the two most popular companies for group plans. The cost of the "cadillac" plan is very high nowadays. A lot of employers that do offer health insurance to their employees have switched to high deductable plans. Of course the employees aren't overly happy about this because they are exposed to a potential annual out of pocket amount of $2,500 to as much as $5,000 or more.

Employers can soften the blow of a high deductable insurance plan by setting up a Health Savings Account (HSA) for the employees. This has tax benefits for the employees as well. Their are companies like Colonial Life that offers employee funded supplemental benefits. One product in particular is the MedBridge program. MedBridge is an insurance policy that an employee can pay for through payroll deduction that insures against the high deductable and the cost is pretty minimal. It's a nice blend of insurance to have in place that does a good job of covering the employees and not costing the employer an arm or a leg.

As far as what you should pay for, that is strictly up to you and the best interests of both you and your employees. Some employers pay 0% of the health premium and there are still a few (very few) that pay 100%. If you are going to contribute then a 50/50 arrangement is probably the most common.

I'm not aware of any Gov't plans that extend to small business owners. This is probably a good thing though.

I like the idea of the health savings account for small businesses. It can be a great advantage to employees, especially if the employer is willing to contribute to the account. Depending on the insurance company, the account holder may be allowed to take a certain amount of pre-tax dollars from their salary to put in the health savings account. So the contributions from the employee to the account lowers the amount of taxable income he/she has at the end of the year.

Would you please guide me or share your experience with Health Insurance benefits. I would like to start providing them and have following queries:

1. How much premium are you paying for a family insurance plan in your group? What can I expect to pay in NJ?2. What are some of the ways to save on this expense?3. How much do you ask your employee to contribute per pay check or % of the premium?4. Are there any federal or state plans that can allow Small Business Owners to tap into and save money?

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